chris1979

unfair??

how else would you have done it?

Allow people to change their membership years as and when it suits (plenty of discussion / questions on that)? Especially after a change has been announced? Not make changes? Gold to everyone because why discriminate against the guy who doesn't travel much?

and who says BA is implementing a commercial change with 'fairness' in mind?

I think it's unfair that other people fly more on business and have a more relaxed travel policy that allows more premium travel. That's real unfairness. Haven't found the right place to complain to though. Short of asking for avios in compensation given life is so unfair.

BA-Flyer

My understanding (and this could be wrong) is that some people get 2 years to renew at the old rates, whilst some are gettting 3 years.

If it was me, I would have given all euro-based members 3 years, so that everyone is treated the same.

chris1979

Splitting hairs a bit and there's plenty of knowledgable posts above pointing out exact technicalities but yes, my understanding is that some might have gotten 2 years and others up to 2 years 11 months.

I am somewhat guessing on system questions here but I assume that that would have been far more system / manual work for BA to essentially have rolling deadlines and 'migrating' accounts to new thresholds on a monthly basis for a year ensuring 'fairness' and giving everyone 2 or 3 years in full - than drawing a line in the sand and saying "post this date..." as they did.

I thought (and still think) that a 2 year period at old levels was (and is) quite generous and they could have just said "as of your next membership-year end, new thresholds apply". That also would have given some up to 11 months of old leves and others only a day.

I take your point that some got more time at a level out of it than others but BA IMHO was quite generous here, don't design a commercial decision / move around 'fairness' (I am sure they might have considered what competitors have done / are doing as they undoubtedly do on all sorts of aspects (status match, etc etc etc)) and - as others have said - I find it healthier (for my own sanity) to take the view that others benefiting a bit more than me isn't taking anything away from me, thus no need for me to get upset.

irishguy28

This is incorrect.

All euro-based members got 2 years (not 3). 2 years is already quite generous.

This "rumour" that some are getting 3 years is only down to the fact that the target for renewal for those who already have used up their 2-year retention grace period has not been corrected upwards from 800 to 1500. This, however, can be done at any time during their membership year and should in no way be taken as proof that some members are getting an extra bite of the cherry at 800. It will surely have been corrected by the time they next come to renew.

irishguy28

Indeed.

Because BA is somewhat unusual in having rolling membership years (as opposed to years tied to the calendar like the majority of other programs), they had to do it in this manner.

It wouldn't have been fair to impose the new threshold on everyone at the same date - fine if you've just renewed and have 11 months left to reach the target, but if you have only 1 month left to renew, and suddenly your target almost doubled, that would be very unfair.

And the issue of some "having status for longer" is a bit of a red herring. Everyone has status for at least a full year after they first qualified for that level, and for an additional year each time they renew thereafter. The unit of duration for status is a year for everyone. No-one got a "shortened" status length as a result of the change. And everyone, regardless of when they renew, gets two further attempts, past the threshold change, to renew at the old level. So everyone was treated exactly the same. The only difference is that some people got a lot of advance notice, while some people got less notice (16 months max, 4 months min, the rule change was announced in November for renewals starting from March onwards - which as shown is a necessity when there is no single renewal date for all, i.e 31 December)

stimpy

Nothing generous about it. Allowing Euro members to requal at 800 TP's was a business decision to lure us to book more flights with BA. Maybe they are rethinking the decision to take that away. They will certainly lose a lot of bookings if they go forward with the changes.

Prospero

Conversely, BA may well see an increase in bookings, at least from BAEC members who are planning on retaining their existing tier.

stimpy

Sure, there may be some who won't see a problem with a, what is it 250% increase in TP's required? But I think that majority will not retain Gold and thus be really unhappy with the downgrade in their overall BA experience.

And of those who stay Gold, will it be because they increased their bookings? Or the fact that they already had well enough to qualify, thus nothing changes for them or BA?

lorcancoyle

50% for silver (400 to 600) and 87.5% for gold (800 to 1500). Plus didn't they increase TPs by 15% or so on LH at the same time? (120 to 140 for CW and 180 to 210 for F) can't recall if extra for the SIN /TYO 6000 milers was at the same time too

AJLondon

^ Not only that, they also increased TP's on some short haul sectors by upto 50% from 40 to 60 TPs. Plus the elite mileage bonuses saw a massive jump to 100%. And the introduction of earning tier points on discount economy fares, as well as full miles.

Of course no one wants to remember these facts. Just the negative aspects.

stimpy

LAX is my most common BA route which I fly in CW. So if I fly LYS-LHR-LAX return I should gain 360 TP's and if I do that twice along with a couple of CE flights, I have done up my Gold. But now I have to do my LAX trip 4 times plus several more CE flights. That is a significantly higher cost and one that I probably won't make in these difficult times. Thus I will likely not under go the financial burden to retain Gold. And if I don't have Gold and cannot enjoy what I have come to rely on in both excellent service to Gold members, BAEC benefits, and of course T5 GF, I will likely avoid BA unless they are really the low cost option.

If times were better I could probably do 1500 TP's. And if it weren't for the fact that AF, KL and LH are finally adding fully flat business class seats, I would likely keep flying BA. But the competition is catching up and we are still in a tough economy.

And all this isn't even considering that BA moved my home airport to T1 which makes LHR transfers unjustifiably painful. It is certainly not a joyful thing, leaving BA.

paulwuk

Aren't gold and silver for frequent flyers?

That means flying monthly at least IMO. Of you're euro based that mean getting silver through 50 flights, even if you're short haul only.

If you fly in premium cabins like people here assume, you'll be getting at least 200 tp for each return for WTP (10+90+90+10). In J that's 360 return.

5 j returns from Europe is not frequent, but is enough to get gold. 2 J returns (3 in wtp) a year keeps silver.

Tier points aren't really matched with spend. You get the same for a sale T fare as a full W. sale I fares are sometimes cheaper than W fares, yet get 60% more tier ponts.

People flying regularly on short CE flights from Europe seem the only ones that suffer - you now need 19 returns to get gold rather than 10.

dodgeflyer

I find this thing wholly complicated so hoping someone can help me gain some clarity. I was a Euro-cheat using my parents home address. I have done two requalifactions on the 400 since the announcement. My year ends Nov 08. I requalified before Nov 2011 (until Dec-12), then requalified again in Feb-12 (to get the lower tresholds), and requalified again last month (which should give me Silver till Dec-14) at 400 TPs.

My questions is as such. Come Nov 08 and the beginning of my new year, will I have a 400 TP level, or will I go up to 600? If the latter, I am inclined to move my account to the UK so as to qualify for the 241s with Amex. I currently have a DC MC which is more useful for shopping but the 241 will go further for me. Can I keep the DC MC and have the Amex?

BlackBerryAddict

Be careful about answers here

Dodgeflyer - I'll send you a PM

BA or bust

^